Let the breeding begin!

Jonathan came into the house yesterday morning and told me that Coco was in heat, and that "a blue and white doe" was also standing next to the buck pen quietly. (That would be Anne Bronte.) It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't decided which does and bucks to breed to each other. In the past, Margaret and I would have been talking about that since the middle of summer, but she's at the University of Illinois now, so I'm pretty much on my own with the animal decisions. And the only thing I've been thinking is that I was not going to breed anyone for kidding before a March due date, because last year's below-zero, January kidding was stressful enough to last me a lifetime. So, who would make a good date for Coco and Anne?

Coco is Katherine's favorite milk goat because she has really big orifices, which means the milk really comes out fast, and Anne is my favorite because she has the longest tests in the herd, meaning it's just easy to get your hands around the teats for milking. Seeing how they're both easy milkers anyway -- and that I've been impressed with the dairy character of Pegasus's daughters, I decided to get him. Needless to say, he was quite happy with that decision.

When I first got him out of the buck pen, he immediately bred Anne, and then he had to brag to the other boys. He ran back to the buck pen and tried to butt heads with the boys through the fence. Of course, they were quite insulted and stuck out their tongues, lifted their upper lips, and made their "blub, blub, blub" noises. Then he bred Coco and bragged some more, while I took Anne by the collar and tried to convince her that he really would follow if she went to a pen farther away from the other bucks. She gave a whole new meaning to the phrase standing heat, as her feet were glued to the ground. She seemed to be saying, "I'm not leaving him with her!" Luckily, Pegasus decided to give Anne some more attention, because as long as he was next to her whispering sweet nothings in her ear, she was willing to take some little steps with me, and we eventually made it to our destination. The other bucks were left in their pen running back and forth by the fence, screaming, "Hey, what about me?"

And I almost forgot to mention that through all of this Bridget the cow was standing next to the fence mooing. She is obviously in heat again, as she is driving poor Molly crazy, trying to mount her all day long. I explained to Bridget that she wasn't old enough to have a bullfriend, but she was clearly ignoring me.

Now I have to sign off because I need to look over pedigrees and pictures and milk records and figure out who will be bred to whom this fall. And then we just have to wait for five long months.